Current affairs.

Hello and welcome to May’s blog. The news is full of recent events so I thought I couldn’t write this without a word or two of reflection. No, I am not talking about Leicester’s football achievements, albeit that’s a blog in itself and sometimes, in midwifery services, we also need to keep the faith, however I digress. I am talking about the strike action from the junior doctors. Don’t worry I’m not going to get too political, it’s nearly midnight for a start and I have a hot chocolate and an episode of Holby waiting. (I know how to live!) I just wanted to say multidisciplinary working is extremely important in midwifery and I have been fortunate to learn a lot in practice from the fabulous junior doctors I have worked with. The team is essential, women and their families deserve all of us to be on top form, I believe our morale is essential and I salute the junior doctors for striving forward in order to deliver (no pun intended) the best care.

In other news

The student midwives have been on tour! We have ventured out into the world – this is worthy of the news in my opinion. The University of York is fabulous at keeping us up-to-date with recent research, articles of interest, study days and conferences. The lecturers are passionate about midwifery and it shows. We are frequently inundated with information from them. There’s no being left behind the times in this degree, although sometimes I wish they would stop as I haven’t had time to so much as check if Gemma Collins has had new eyebrows painted on. (OK<, I admit the midwifery bed time reading has saved me from my previous ways).

The MaMa Conference this year was held in sunny Scotland, so we dutifully travelled up north by train, fuelled only by our love of midwifery (OK, OK, and by wine) to soak up the atmosphere of like-minded people in one space (we may have soaked up some wine during this time) and learn about current research.

The itinerary of speakers was fabulous, I told my husband it was the equivalent of Glastonbury for midwives. He raised an eyebrow at this so I feel he grasped the excitement I portrayed. The famous Ina May Gaskin, Professor Denis Walsh and Professor Soo Downe were present, amongst many others. There is something so enlightening about being in a room full of passionate people all wanting to improve birth for women. My favourite speech of the day was by Denis Walsh, “Should birth workers be feminists?” He began his talk with some statistics. As we are in the business of looking after women I was surprised how shocking I found these statistics. I thought I knew a lot of this information. I didn’t. For instance only 1% of the world’s land is owned by women. 80% of the world’s refugees are women. 200,000 to 300,000 women a year are trafficked into Europe. According to Denis Walsh….

“It is now more dangerous to be a woman in the world, than it is to be a soldier in active combat”

This is the quote from the conference I can’t forget. That’s the thing about conferences, study days and research articles, they are thought provoking and linger. I’m glad our lecturers throw information in our direction as without these little pieces of glitter infiltrating our thoughts, we may just accept the status quo. We are learning to challenge what we think we know and, like the junior doctors, demand the best for the women we look after.

Tomorrow’s chip paper…

My blog is a tiny glitter fragment of what I learnt over the two day conference. It also doesn’t include the fun we had sampling the delights of Edinburgh before we travelled home, the moral boost of being away and relaxing by socialising in the evenings cannot be underestimated. My sides hurt from laughing and my brain ached from learning. My midwifery mojo was well and truly topped up. Here’s to the next one, the RCM conference in Harrogate and, let’s face it, they have nice wine in Harrogate!

Eleni xx

My program autographed by Ina May GaskinPretty drink in Edinburgh

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Eleni

I am a second year midwifery student. I have a previous degree in Fine art and English literature with a long standing interest in photography. I am a long distance runner, currently in the process of raising money for newborn group b strep support with 30 events for my 30th year. I hope to complete an ultra marathon in the spring. I also have 4 children to keep me busy.
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